“I WRITE”

 

V. ZVYAGINTSEVA

 

I write as I breathe.

I can’t write as others want.

I hasten to share

That ecstasy, rapture,

That pain of mine.

Probably I am not right

Thus before all.

Words are not necessary

About deeds outstripping time!

Who am I all-myself?

I live in this vast world

Not alone, not the two of us,

Hiding in secluded corner.

It’s not such a time

To live only in one’s own soul,

It is necessary

To dip the tip of my pen

In the large sea of life.

But nevertheless friends

(Perhaps because of this sin)

Take leave of me,

And indeed, I’m also a particle

Of this age

Of course, I sin

That’s the fate of man!

I write as I breathe,

But I breathe.

The air of the age.

 

Translated from Russian by G. K. G. Joshi

 

 

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